03/16/2026
A post I’ve been writing in my head for about two weeks…
Growing up in a small town, there wasn’t always an unlimited amount of entertainment to keep kids busy and out of trouble. But honestly, I always felt like Madelia had plenty.
When I was young, we had three parks, the swimming pool, the movie theater, the library, the ball field, an outdoor skating rink at the elementary school, and the bowling alley. Not to mention it was a safe place to ride my bike or rollerblade around town with friends for hours.
I never really felt like there wasn’t enough to do… until I was about 15 and would have much rather been wandering around a mall drinking frappes or driving endless circles around the whip.
To some people it probably looked boring, like there wasn’t enough to do. I remember one summer when family came to visit and my cousins were bored out of their minds. I was younger then and couldn’t understand why they didn’t want to spend the entire day at the pool. I mean...it even had a slide! I practically lived at that pool for several summers.
When my mom and I first moved to Madelia, our family went out to eat at the bowling alley every single Thursday night. For years it was a tradition we rarely skipped.
Looking back now, I remember how much the bowling alley changed between my elementary school years and high school. I remember when scores were still kept on paper- long before the lanes were electronic. If I was lucky, I might get to order a frosty mug of root beer while Wally gave everyone a hard time (all in good fun, of course).
I don’t remember exactly when or why our Thursday nights there stopped. Most likely it was when life started filling up with sports, community events, and 4-H. But I still spent a fair amount of time at the bowling alley with friends as I got older. We even hosted Case’s birthday party there last year.
Walking through that door, you always knew what to expect...the smell of the fryer, burgers cooking in the kitchen, the sounds of the lanes, the chatter from the bar. The people changed over the years, the games changed too. I spent plenty of hours playing pinball there back in the day.
Every time I walked in, there was this sense of nostalgia. It took me right back to being a kid.
A few weeks ago was the first time I walked through those doors and realized that feeling might never quite be the same again.
The bowling alley was sold a few months ago to the local hospital and clinic where I work, and I was part of the team helping get the equipment ready to be sold. When I went over there, the lanes and bowling equipment had already been removed.
For a moment it was shocking to see.
The ceiling still dropped where the lanes used to be. The signs were still hanging. But the lanes were gone. My eyes almost couldn’t make sense of it.
It’s funny how so many things can change, yet still somehow feel the same.
The lanes and bowling equipment are now getting a second life at another small-town bowling alley, which honestly feels pretty fitting. The kitchen equipment was auctioned off and mostly stayed local, so our community will still benefit from it.
And the building itself?
It will now give new life to our hospital, an organization that has quite literally run out of space and is landlocked as it continues expanding much needed services for our community.
I imagine for years to come I might still walk into that building and catch the faint smell of decades of fryer grease and spilled beer.
But maybe some things simply run their course so something new can grow in their place.
And really… how lucky are we that it’s still serving our community?
